The Cork Factory Lofts apparently don't have to be up for sale for bidders to try and buy it anyway.

After hearing plenty of conflicting rumors of whether the Cork Factory and its companion Lot 24 project were up for sale or not, I was able to catch up with Dan McCaffery, chairman of Chicago-based McCaffery Interests, the main developer of the project.

He offered only limited comment on the property. But said potential buyers continue to gravitate to it.

"Ever since I started Lot 24, we’ve been getting offers,” he said. “We’re getting offers all the time and I can’t deny that.”

McCaffery didn’t have much more to offer other than to say the property wasn’t under contract.

At the time, Chuck Hammel, a minority partner in the Cork Factory and president of neighboring Pitt Ohio Express, told me the partners were interested in testing the market value for the Cork Factory Lofts in part as a measure against bank valuations, since they were working to refinance the project and sought a strong appraisal.

Since then, McCaffery and Hammel have refinanced the project and developed a 96-unit second phase to it, Lot 24, which leased up completely last winter, a traditional slow period for apartment leasing.

The entire complex has long operated at full occupancy with a waiting list for a total of more than 390 units between the two buildings. Also included is a 427-space parking garage that includes 43,550 square feet of retail space, anchored by Marty's Market.

I had a source roughly estimate the property could fetch more than $80 million. Another thought it could reach more than $100 million as a trophy property of its kind in the Pittsburgh market.

Dan Puntil, a senior vice president in the Pittsburgh office of Grandbridge Real Estate Capital, who follows multi-family investments in the region, sees the Cork Factory as a key influence on Pittsburgh's recent apartment development boom.

"It’s an awesome project, for sure," he said. "In my opinion, it kicked off the whole renovation wave in Pittsburgh."